Molyneux’s £50,000 In Game Item

The anti-vampire of hype, Peter Molyneux, has done it again. This time, he doesn’t need an affable canine chum or world changing decisions to generate headlines, however – this is something far more grand. About fifty grand to be precise. Pardon? It seems that the Fable creator and legendary hype-merchant has announced that the first of 22 experiments by his new studio, 22 Cans, will contain a DLC item which will retail at £50,000.

So, that’s a fair chunk of change.. what does it buy? A Dragon Sword of Infinite Smiting, Kryptonite D-Cups, The Kotick Syrup of Suing? No, the item is a humble chisel. 22 Cans’ ‘Curiosity’ experiment will feature a mysterious cube that players can chip and chisel away at. While you are unable to see the other players, you can see their effects on the cube… but only one player, the one who makes the final chip after a large, undisclosed number, will get to see what’s inside – something “truly amazing, absolutely unique,” Peter Molyneux explained to New Scientist. Apparently you can buy different chisels with varying strengths and the £50,000 diamond chisel is more about a test than making money.

“It’s an insane amount of money,” admits Molyneux, going on to say: “This is not a money-making exercise; it is a test about the psychology of monetisation.” Indeed, as New Scientist also mention, it will interesting to see whether this curiosity will spur one player alone to fork out, or whether a large syndicate of players will chip in (pun intended) to purchase the chisel. Let’s just hope that whomever gets the honour of performing the coup de grâce on the cube remembers to have Fraps running or there will be a great many pissed off syndicate members.

Curiosity is just one of a number of planned experiments, which have been designed to explore the psychology of social media users (is that wise? – Ed.) and will be launching in just a few week’s time. The aim is to distill the gathered information and use it to better inform the design of a game that Molyneux hopes to release within the next few years. It had better be something decent for fifty grand, although given his track record, we are retaining the right to be cynical bastards until that cube vomits a rainbow unicorn, complete with pot of gold.